A Letter From Italy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAB BBAA AACC AADDEEAA AAAABBFF GGAAAA HHIIJJ BBAAAACCKKDDAABBLLMM BBAACCAAFFAANNBIOOCC AAKKPPAAQQRRSSTT AAOOPPOOOOAA OOAAOOAAUUAAOO OOUUOOGG AAOOLLVVAALLMAM OOWNOOBBAAAA OOOOOO OOLLSalve magna parens frugum Saturnia tellus | A |
Magna vir m tibi res antiqu laudis et artis | A |
Aggredior sanctos ausus recludere fontes | A |
Virg Geor | B |
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While you my Lord the rural shades admire | B |
And from Britannia's public posts retire | B |
Nor longer her ungrateful sons to please | A |
For their advantage sacrifice your ease | A |
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Me into foreign realms my fate conveys | A |
Through nations fruitful of immortal lays | A |
Where the soft season and inviting clime | C |
Conspire to trouble your repose with rhyme | C |
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For wheresoe'er I turn my ravish'd eyes | A |
Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise | A |
Poetic fields encompass me around | D |
And still I seem to tread on classic ground | D |
For here the Muse so oft her harp has strung | E |
That not a mountain rears its head unsung | E |
Renown'd in verse each shady thicket grows | A |
And ev'ry stream in heavenly numbers flows | A |
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How am I pleas'd to search the hills and woods | A |
For rising springs and celebrated floods | A |
To view the Nar tumultuous in his course | A |
And trace the smooth Clitumnus to his source | A |
To see the Mincio draw his wat'ry store | B |
Through the long windings of a fruitful shore | B |
And hoary Albula's infected tide | F |
O'er the warm bed of smoking sulphur glide | F |
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Fir'd with a thousand raptures I survey | G |
Eridanus through flowery meadows stray | G |
The king of floods that rolling o'er the plains | A |
The towering Alps of half their moisture drains | A |
And proudly swoln with a whole winter's snows | A |
Distributes wealth and plenty where he flows | A |
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Sometimes misguided by the tuneful throng | H |
I look for streams immortaliz'd in song | H |
That lost in silence and oblivion lie | I |
Dumb are their fountains and their channels dry | I |
Yet run forever by the Muse's skill | J |
And in the smooth description murmur still | J |
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Sometimes to gentle Tiber I retire | B |
And the fam'd river's empty shores admire | B |
That destitute of strength derives its course | A |
From thrifty urns and an unfruitful source | A |
Yet sung so often in poetic lays | A |
With scorn the Danube and the Nile surveys | A |
So high the deathless Muse exalts her theme | C |
Such was the Boin a poor inglorious stream | C |
That in Hibernian vales obscurely stray'd | K |
And unobserv'd in wild meanders play'd | K |
'Till by your lines and Nassau's sword renown'd | D |
Its rising billows through the world resound | D |
Where e'er the hero's godlike acts can pierce | A |
Or where the fame of an immortal verse | A |
Oh could the Muse my ravish'd breast inspire | B |
With warmth like yours and raise an equal fire | B |
Unnumber'd beauties in my verse should shine | L |
And Virgil's Italy should yield to mine | L |
See how the golden groves around me smile | M |
That shun the coast of Britain's stormy isle | M |
Or when transplanted and preserv'd with care | B |
Curse the cold clime and starve in northern air | B |
Here kindly warmth their mounting juice ferments | A |
To nobler tastes and more exalted scents | A |
Ev'n the rough rocks with tender myrtle bloom | C |
And trodden weeds send out a rich perfume | C |
Bear me some god to Baia's gentle seats | A |
Or cover me in Umbria's green retreats | A |
Where western gales eternally reside | F |
And all the seasons lavish all their pride | F |
Blossoms and fruits and flowers together rise | A |
And the whole year in gay confusion lies | A |
Immortal glories in my mind revive | N |
And in my soul a thousand passions strive | N |
When Rome's exalted beauties I descry | B |
Magnificent in piles of ruin lie | I |
An amphitheatre's amazing height | O |
Here fills my eye with terror and delight | O |
That on its public shows unpeopled Rome | C |
And held uncrowded nations in its womb | C |
Here pillars rough with sculpture pierce the skies | A |
And here the proud triumphal arches rise | A |
Where the old Romans deathless acts display'd | K |
Their base degenerate progeny upbraid | K |
Whole rivers here forsake the fields below | P |
And wond'ring at their height through airy channels flow | P |
Still to new scenes my wand'ring Muse retires | A |
And the dumb show of breathing rocks admires | A |
Where the smooth chisel all its force has shown | Q |
And soften'd into flesh the rugged stone | Q |
In solemn silence a majestic band | R |
Heroes and gods the Roman consuls stand | R |
Stern tyrants whom their cruelties renown | S |
And emperors in Parian marble frown | S |
While the bright dames to whom they humbly su'd | T |
Still show the charms that their proud hearts subdu'd | T |
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Fain would I Raphael's godlike art rehearse | A |
And show th' immortal labours in my verse | A |
Where from the mingled strength of shade and light | O |
A new creation rises to my sight | O |
Such heav'nly figures from his pencil flow | P |
So warm with life his blended colours glow | P |
From theme to theme with secret pleasure tost | O |
Amidst the soft variety I'm lost | O |
Here pleasing airs my ravish'd soul confound | O |
With circling notes and labyrinths of sound | O |
Here domes and temples rise in distant views | A |
And opening palaces invite my Muse | A |
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How has kind Heav'n adorn'd the happy land | O |
And scatter'd blessings with a wasteful hand | O |
But what avail her unexhausted stores | A |
Her blooming mountains and her sunny shores | A |
With all the gifts that heav'n and earth impart | O |
The smiles of nature and the charms of art | O |
While proud oppression in her valleys reigns | A |
And tyranny usurps her happy plains | A |
The poor inhabitant beholds in vain | U |
The red'ning orange and the swelling grain | U |
Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines | A |
And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines | A |
Starves in the midst of nature's bounty curst | O |
And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst | O |
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Oh Liberty thou goddess heavenly bright | O |
Profuse of bliss and pregnant with delight | O |
Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign | U |
And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train | U |
Eas'd of her load subjection grows more light | O |
And poverty looks cheerful in thy sight | O |
Thou mak'st the gloomy face of Nature gay | G |
Giv'st beauty to the sun and pleasure to the day | G |
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Thee goddess thee Britannia's Isle adores | A |
How has she oft exhausted all her stores | A |
How oft in fields of death thy presence sought | O |
Nor thinks the mighty prize too dearly bought | O |
On foreign mountains may the sun refine | L |
The grape's soft juice and mellow it to wine | L |
With citron groves adorn a distant soil | V |
And the fat olive swell with floods of oil | V |
We envy not the warmer clime that lies | A |
In ten degrees of more indulgent skies | A |
Nor at the coarseness of our heaven repine | L |
Tho' o'er our heads the frozen Pleiads shine | L |
'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's Isle | M |
And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains | A |
smile | M |
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Others with towering piles may please the sight | O |
And in their proud aspiring domes delight | O |
A nicer touch to the stretch'd canvas give | W |
Or teach their animated rocks to live | N |
'Tis Britain's care to watch o'er Europe's fate | O |
And hold in balance each contending state | O |
To threaten bold presumptuous kings with war | B |
And answer her afflicted neighbours' pray'r | B |
The Dane and Swede rous'd up by fierce alarms | A |
Bless the wise conduct of her pious arms | A |
Soon as her fleets appear their terrors cease | A |
And all the northern world lies hush'd in peace | A |
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Th' ambitious Gaul beholds with secret dread | O |
Her thunder aim'd at his aspiring head | O |
And fain her godlike sons would disunite | O |
By foreign gold or by domestic spite | O |
But strives in vain to conquer or divide | O |
Whom Nassau's arms defend and counsels guide | O |
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Fir'd with the name which I so oft have found | O |
The distant climes and different tongues resound | O |
I bridle in my struggling Muse with pain | L |
That longs to launch in | L |
Joseph Addison
(1)
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